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Hey my indie friend,
Here we are.
A new year.
A clean page.
2026.
Not as a reset button. More like a deep breath. And I guess, you need it, too.
This is the first issue of 2026. Enjoy it, as usual.
Love 🤍, and Happy New Year!
Mitxoda
Your reading pleasure starts here...
Welcome to 2026, indie souls 🤍
Last year was loud in its own quiet way.
Week after week, Mitxoda kept moving. Sometimes fast, sometimes limping, sometimes floating, but always forward.
Just a few new songs. A lot of new stories. And new voices crossing borders without asking permission.
From late-night submissions sent from bedrooms in Belgium, Finland, Canada, Australia, Italy, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the UK, the US, and places that don’t always make the playlists…
To radio moments that felt unreal, fragile, and deeply human.
There were first listens that stayed.
There were tracks that didn’t explode, and yes 🙂 , that was exactly the point.
There were artists who trusted this space for many reasons, including honesty.
That’s indie.
Not volume. Only presence.
What we built together
2025 was about:
Listening before speaking
Curating instead of chasing
Letting songs breathe
Giving time back to music
Mitxoda Weekly became a ritual.
Le Salon Indie became a meeting point.
The Indie Top 100 started slowly shaping itself. Not as a chart, but as a living archive of moments shared. Still in beta, but it seems you like it already 🙂 .
And most importantly:
a quiet, stubborn community kept showing up.
You did.
Looking ahead (without rushing)
2026 won’t scream louder.
I guess It will listen better.
This year, I’ll keep doing what I do best:
discovering discreet brilliance
shining a soft light on artists who don’t fit the algorithm
crossing borders without turning music into a product pitch
creating music (a bit more than last year I hope)
More countries.
More late submissions.
More unexpected genres.
More moments where you stop whatever you’re doing because that song just hit.
Some events will return.
Some new formats will appear gently.
Some projects will stay mysterious a bit longer, because not everything needs a trailer, right? (intense suspense! ahaha)
A small promise
In a world that accelerates everything,
Together,
we choose patience
we choose curiosity
we choose care
Love over noise.
Peace over pressure.
Serenity over saturation.
And above all:
the joy of continuing to explore what indie music does best: connecting humans, quietly, across the planet.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for trusting your ears.
Thank you for choosing the long road.
2026 is open.
Let’s walk it together.
With love,
Mitxoda 🤍
Media Leaders on AI: Insights from Disney, ESPN, Forrester Research
The explosion of visual content is almost unbelievable, and creative, marketing, and ad teams are struggling to keep up. Content workflows are slowing down, and teams can't find the right assets quickly enough.
The crucial question is: How can you still win with the influx of content and keep pace with demand?
Find out on Jan 14, 2026, at 10am PT/1pm ET as industry leaders—including Phyllis Davidson, VP Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, and former media executive Oke Okaro as they draw on their deep media research and experience from ESPN, Disney, Reuters, and beyond.
In the webinar, "The Future of Content Workflows: How AI is Powering the Next Wave," you’ll learn:
The forces reshaping content operations
Where current systems are falling short
How leading organizations are using multimodal AI to extend their platforms
What deeper image and video understanding unlocks for monetization
Get clear insight and actionable perspective from the leaders who built and transformed top media and entertainment organizations.
Quick Indie News
Hey, wanna be listed here? help me get all that fresh indie news!
» Submit your latest songs here
» Share the latest hot indie news (email me back), and I’ll feature it in another edition!
🎧 J&M Band — Daft Sensible
📅 2025-11-04 • 🇮🇹 Italy
Electronic | Indie Dance
🔗 https://open.spotify.com/track/7aa7ZJ8am0tPz4vkVLKfq8?si=330e3aed20e84151
A dreamy electronic track built on whispers, night echoes, and quiet introspection.
Daft Sensible drifts through empty roads and chasing stars, capturing that fragile space between clarity and illusion.
Minimal, poetic, and gently hypnotic. As usual with Marco ❤
🎧 Phillip Foxley — Pictures
📅 2024-10-02 (remastered & re-released Dec 2025) • 🇬🇧 UK
Alternative Rock | Pop Rock
🔗 https://open.spotify.com/track/2HoTPKBe5KUelZdISUZWTY?si=1dc87075c6e3454b
🌐 https://linktr.ee/phillipfoxley
A reflective alternative track exploring memory, imagination, and emotional survival.
Originally released in 2024 and now remastered, Pictures revisits a traumatic period through a personal, melodic lens, simple, sincere, and quietly powerful.
🎧 The Electrozixx — Electric Waves
📅 2025-11-03 • 🇧🇪 Belgium
Electronic | Synthwave
🔗 https://open.spotify.com/track/5Z6JgyV5rsrz1qomTK7N6d?si=D8TQriqkQNu4YHA9pk_UNA
Heavily inspired by classic 1980s synth sounds, Electric Waves delivers pulsing textures and retro-futuristic energy.
A track rooted in nostalgia but driven by modern electronic momentum.
🎧 Andrew Russell Band, Michael Gutierrez-May & Nadine de Macedo — Toward Tomorrow
📅 2026-01-09 • 🇨🇦 Canada / 🇺🇸 USA / 🇩🇪 Germany
Folk | Americana
🔗 https://too.fm/ndm-toward-tomorrow
A deeply moving folk song about recovery, identity, and second chances.
Toward Tomorrow tells the story of a man reclaiming his life after childhood trauma, addiction, and homelessness, a mournful elegy that slowly turns toward hope, dignity, and self-worth.
Honest, heavy, and ultimately redemptive.
If you'd like to introduce your latest release, just click here to submit all the details. I’d love to hear about it! 😇 Submit your track here.
Historical Fact: When Afrobeat Took Broadway (and Refused to Behave)
On January 2, 2011, Fela!, the explosive Broadway musical inspired by the life, music, and words of Fela Kuti, took its final bow at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City.
After 463 performances, the show closed having done far more than entertain. Fela! turned Broadway into a political, rhythmic, sweaty act of resistance, Afrobeat horns blasting, bodies dancing, and truth shouted loud. Joy as protest.
Winning three Tony Awards, the production proved that radical music from Lagos could shake the foundations of one of the most traditional stages in the world, without softening its message.
That night in January confirmed that Fela’s spirit, defiant, loud, uncompromising, could never be confined to a stage schedule.
Indie before indie had a name, en quelque sorte.
Keep the Historical Fact?
Until Next Week: Thanks for being here, really.
For listening with intention.
For choosing curiosity over speed.
For staying when things get quiet.
2026 is just beginning. There’s no rush.
More songs will arrive. From nearby, from far away.
Some will whisper, some will shake you gently. All of them deserve time.
Keep sending what you love.
Keep your ears open.
Keep your heart soft.
We’ll keep walking this path together, one track at a time.
With love, peace, and patience,
🖤 Mitxoda
Did you like this weekly?
END 😆